City of Tears
by Iefer
Summary: Jocelyn and Luke move to Idris. Clary joins the Lightwoods living at the Institute.
1. Goodbye

**Disclaimer: Despite how much I would love to say that I own The Mortal Instruments that honour goes to Cassandra Clare not me.**

**Goodbye**

Clary carefully folded the last of the tops that lay on her bed and put it into the suitcase next to her. She spent a few energetic minuets forcing the lid down and the zipper across before she turned back to survey the room. The room that she had sat in while coming to terms with the information that had been concealed from her for most of her life was now completely bare except for the furniture, bedding and the large suitcases and boxes that were now on the floor by the door. The rest of the house looked the same, Luke's house was being kept as a holiday home and her Mum and Step-dad were moving to a new house in Idris, Clary however was staying in New York. She was 18 and had almost caught up with the training she had missed due to her 'little memory problem' as Jace phrased it. She was now an employable as a true Shadowhunter, as such she was moving into the Institute with the Lightwoods. Clary smiled thinking that from today she would be living with Jace, she had downplayed his point in negotiations with her mother, of course, but Clary knew that Jocelyn suspected this was her true motivation for staying in New York, and she was right.

Clary took one last look at the room where she had truly grown up then picked up the suitcases and left the room. As she entered the living room, she saw her Mum and Luke sitting together on the sofa. She loved that they were finally married and how ay ease they were around each other. Thanks to the signing of the Accords Downworlders and Shadowhunters were no longer segregated by events outside the control of either side. A knock at the door shook the family out of their thoughts, Clary raced to the door as Jocelyn and Luke stood and began bringing boxes and bags out of various room.

On the other side of the door was a massive group of people. At the front was Jace with Alec, Magnus, Isabelle, Simon and Maia were standing slightly to the left of them and behind Clary's friends were masses of wolves from Luke's pack and a few other Shadowhunters who weren't helping from Idris. All of these people had come to help move the objects of this family's life to the Institute where Clary would be staying and her parents would leave for Idris through the portal.

Clary stood to one side to allow them to file into the narrow hallway. She was amazed that they could all fit into the tiny hall and sitting room but as the wolves left one by one, laden with boxes there was more room to move and Clary managed to fight her way to the kitchen where the boxes that held all of the objects from her childhood were stacked. She handed random boxes to Magnus and Alec and groaned as one of the sides of Alec's box gave out and her teddy fell out of the gap that formed. She knew that she was too old for stuffed toys but to her surprise no one commented, she wasn't fooled though, they were just going to use it as ammo later. She should have left it behind but she had owned that particular bear since she was a baby and was not about to abandon it, after all it had survived dirt, teenage tantrums and, more recently, demon attacks. She quickly scooped it up and dumped it back into the top of the box that Alec had moved around so that he was holding the gap against his chest and nothing else was going to fall out.

After that incident she was more careful about who she allocated boxes to. She handed a box full of shoes and makeup to Isabelle, she knew that the fashion conscious Shadowhunter would not have a problem with this as she was the one that had forced Clary to buy most of the objects held in the cardboard in the first place. She gave Simon and Maia suitcases with her clothes in and paused before handing Jace a box full of art supplies. She hefted the holdall containing her weapons and Shadowhunter gear into her arms before switching out the lights and following the rest of the group out to the collection of cars and trucks parked outside.

Half an hour later, the vehicles were crammed with boxes, bags and people and were driving across town, or rather, were crawling across town as the New York traffic had gotten the better of them once more. Clary sighed thinking that at this rate it would have been quicker to walk. Jace smiled sensing the directions of her thoughts and lent across the objects stacked between them to whisper "And that, Clary, is why we take the subway when demon hunting." He didn't dare say it any louder, Jocelyn was in the front seat and had already shouted at a wolf for dropping a box of art supplies and sworn at the traffic very colourfully. Nobody had the nerve so step out of line today, Clary's Mum had been known to be more terrifying than Agramon when she was in a temper as she was today.

Despite Clary's pessimism, they arrived at the Institute a mere hour after leaving Luke's house. It took a further 45 minutes to unpack the cars and bring all of the boxes that were going with Jocelyn and Luke beside the portal to Idris. Clary smiled at the sight of her true home through the little window. Tears suddenly sprung to her eyes as she realised that this could be the last time she saw her mother and stepfather. Shadowhunters had a very short life expectancy and Clary would soon be hunting demons every night.

Seeing the water droplets glistening in her daughter's eyes Clary's mother pulled her into her arms and held her as she had when Clary was very young. Normally, Clary would have been embarrassed by this display of maternal affection but his time she clung to her mother as if the warm arms that held her were the only things keeping her attached to this life. Eventually they broke apart and Clary moved to give Luke a quick farewell hug before standing back and waving goodbye as her parents stepped through the arch that would take them back to their old home.

She could barely see through the tears as she helped the Lightwoods and members of Luke's pack pass the rest of the boxes through to the waiting arms of the Shadowhunters that were helping Luke and Jocelyn move into their new home. When the only boxes left were Clary's Jace pulled her slight frame to his chest and wiped away her tears as the guests left and Alec and Isabelle began moving the remaining boxes and bags into the room next to Isabelle's.

**(A/N: This is my first fanfic so please review. Please, cyber- chocolate is available for the 1****st ****person to review.) **


	2. Beware Friends Who Help Unpack

**Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare's characters not mine (, I would love to borrow Jace for a bit if he's on loan though) **

**A/N: I would like to give a big thank you to ****Magickless Sorceress****, ****whitewolf207**** and ****Serenity Shadowstar**** who were my first reviewers. Thank you folks, you rock (I shall give you all cyber chocolate as you have made me feel so happy).**

**Beware Friends Who Help Unpack**

Clary accepted the comfort provided by her boyfriend's warmth for a few minutes before pulling and picking up the holdall once more. She followed Jace down the infinitely long corridor to the room that she would now live in. She pushed the door open and dropped the bag in surprise hearing the faint clatter of the metal objects inside. She had expected to walk into a room as barren as Jace's, a room that only contained essential furniture. This room did not fit that description, someone, she suspected Jace judging by the slightly smug look that he now wore, had hung framed artwork next to the window and above the headboard of the bed. He had also covered the notice board with her sketch ideas and her favourite photos, the ones that she had forced him to take in a photo booth on their first real date. She turned to peck him on the cheek and whisper a thank you in his ear before a loud cough indicated that Isabelle and Alec had appeared to help unpack. Clary quickly turned towards the boxes piled on the bed and pulled the nearest one towards her. She carefully extracted a stack of clean canvases, pilling them into the space between the desk and wardrobe and resting a half completed painting face down against the wall behind the desk.

She turned back into the room and breathed a relieved sigh that nobody was unpacking the rest of her art things, they knew by now that if Clary didn't show you a picture you weren't supposed to look at it, Clary could be as short-tempered as her mother was. They also knew that Clary was very protective of her art and to ignore this was to take your life into your hands.

Jace was unloading the holdall and smiling gently at the new runes that were etched onto some of the weapons that the bag contained. He loved it when Clary invented knew runes; he said that it gave him confidence that she could always protect herself, despite the years of training she had missed. He put the new armaments on the table beside the bed "we are going to have a special room for your new stuff." He explained when he noticed that she was watching him. "You know, the things that haven't been tested yet, that way we can make sure that all of them work properly before you present them to the Clave." Clary nodded, and Jace proceeded to unpack her hunting clothes and put them neatly in the chest of draws next to the window.

Clary switched her attention to Isabelle and laughed at the face the tall girl was pulling at the T-shirt she was holding. "I _really_ need to take you shopping "she commented, smiling at Clary before turning back to the suitcase. Clary grimaced, she had been shopping with Isabelle once before and her purse still hadn't recovered. Clary head snapped around as she was shaken out of her unpleasant thoughts of Isabelle with money in a clothing store by a sharp burst of laughter from Alec. What she saw before her made her blood freeze; Alec was holding her diary open in his hands, as he began reading aloud Clary launched herself at him. "' " There" he said. " That wasn't so bad, was it, even though it wasn't forbidden?" '" Clary threw herself at him once more but he laughed and stepped to one side and avoided her wild leap. Isabelle was doubled up at this point, both at Clary's futile attempt to retrieve to book clasped in her brother's hands and at what he was reading out of it.

Alec deftly dodged Clary again and then fell backwards. Jace leant over his parabatai and picked the little book up; handing it to Clary then gathered the rest from the box and handed them too to his girlfriend while Alec dusted himself off. Jace pecked her on the cheek and whispered in her ear "Go and hide these somewhere in my room while the others continue unpacking. You can come and get them later. You should probably take anything else that you don't want them to find with you, that way we won't get a repeat of earlier." Clary grinned thankfully and gathered her sketchbooks before sneaking off to find a good hiding place.

She walked into the room that she thought belonged to her boyfriend and stared in shock. She must have misremembered, Jace's room had always been cold and bare, absent of any objects that would allow differentiation between this and the other, unoccupied, rooms in the Institute. Now however, there were pictures on free patch of wall, photographs were arranged on the chest of draws and the tables by the bed and there were picture frames in neat lines on the desk. Clary started as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder, "This is the right room," Jace reassured her "take a closer look at the pictures." Clary hesitantly stepped through the doorway and smiled as she recognised the artwork that hung on the walls. She had painted them for Jace and had given him one every time she came home from Idris during her Shadowhunter training. She had always wondered where he had put them.

Looking at the photos, she recognised the faces of the Lightwoods and on the bedside tables her own face peered out of silver frames, occasionally she saw Jace's own face next to those of his family or alongside hers. She beamed at him and looked with interest at the desk, what she saw stole her breath away; the letters that she had written to him from Idris were framed and arranged neatly along the back wall. She could see now that this was still Jace's room, it was still uncluttered and neat, Jace had just allowed himself to care for someone else and he wanted to be surrounded by the faces and gifts of the people, which he had finally allowed himself to love, while he was in his sanctuary. Clary held Jace tightly before hiding the books under some shirts in his draws. When she turned back, he had already crept silently away. Clary flipped the light switch and closed the door behind her.

When she returned to her new room she realised that she must have been gone for some time; the others has managed to unpack everything except her art supplies, which nobody had dared touch. Alec, Isabelle and Jace were sitting on her bed casually discussing what to do for dinner, "I was just thinking that Clary might like something home cooked" Argued Isabelle, "she moved out today and some comfort food might be in order." Clary smiled, Isabelle always helped Clary when she was upset or stressed, and the boys just didn't get it. The dark haired girl turned towards Clary as she came in, "Wouldn't you like me to cook you a proper meal?" she asked. On second thoughts, mused Clary it may be best to keep Isabelle out of the kitchen, Clary was quite hungry after missing lunch in the chaos of moving, "Actually, can we go out and find something?" Clary shot a look at the boys lounging on her bed and received grateful looks for this suggestion. "Well, alright" conceded Isabelle, "but I get to choose what you ware tonight!" Clary sighed, somehow Isabelle had managed to win the argument by loosing, and she always seemed to do that, but Clary wished that she had the skill, it made wining arguments her very tricky.

**(A/N: Sorry if Jace seemed a little strange in this, I didn't mean to it just happened (I just meant to show that Clary had helped him mature emotionally, but I don't think that it came across). Anyway, as happy as this seems now I reassure you that it will get sad, I just wanted let them have some fun before the doom and gloom set in) **


	3. The Lesser of Two Evils

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Characters Cassandra Clare does (oh, and I forgot to say last time that the quote from Clary's diary was p 284 City of Glass). (Does everyone else get sick of writing the disclaimers or is it just me?)**

**The Lesser of Two Evils**

After 2 hours of Isabelle's fussing over her dress and make up, Clary was finally permitted to leave her room. She stood very carefully not wanting to fall in the 5 inch stiletto heels, noticing the grin plastered across the tall Shadowhunters face and grimacing. She stumbled her way to the door and stood, wobbling slightly, in the entrance hall. Jace held out a hand to steady her and she took it gratefully, she could stand in most heels after her months of training but these were still a little beyond her. "If you come with me to the weapons room I'll give you some extra balance runes to help you in those shoes. Shadowhunters are always a target and I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself just because of Isabelle's fashion choices." Clary nodded and followed Jace down the hall towards the library and arsenal.

In the armoury, Jace grabbed Clary's wrist and pulled the bell cuff up her arms stopping when the material was too tight to shift. Pulling his stele out of his jeans, he quickly traced the outline of an extra balance rune before releasing Clary's arm. He quickly grabbed some angel blades from the rack as Clay drew one final rune on her left wrist. "What blades do you want?" Enquired Jace, at this Clary smirked, if Jace couldn't see that she was armed it was likely to get past all security and demons too. Spotting her expression Jace frowned, Clary took pity on him "I already have stiletto knives in my heels, two angel blades holding my hair up and a couple of daggers, along with my stele strapped to my legs. Isabelle seems to be quite the expert at concealed weaponry." Jace looked shocked, then regained his composure, "What weapon do you want to test today then?" he asked, obviously proud of his girlfriend's unique talent.

After arming herself with a few new weapons, which Isabelle quickly hid in various places, the group of teenage Shadowhunters was finally ready to leave. By this time, Clary was faint from hunger and her stomach was rumbling noisily. Alec stood with his head on Magnus' shoulder. Clary remembered when Alec had been hiding his secret from his parents, how he and Magnus had never spent much time together and that when they had been in the same room it had been filled with an uncomfortable silence, full of the things that they would not or could not say to each other. She was glad that they could finally be seen together without fear of judgement and ostracism, she loved that they were completely at ease around one another.

Magnus smiled as he noticed her. Clary twitched the bottom of her, extremely short, black and jade green dress as she blushed under the eyes that were now trained on her. Why did Isabelle give her a short skirt and long sleeves? As she thought of what she was wearing, she wanted to run and hide, she was used to dressing in skirts but this was more than even she was used to; Isabelle had managed to persuade and blackmail Clary into 5 inch green heels, with bare legs and a dress that really wasn't long enough. Clary suspected that the dress had been designed for a dancer; it was black with a green dragon that curled around the flared skirt before lying diagonally across that body with its wings spanned open wrapped around the stomach. Knowing Magnus though, it wasn't the dress that he was grinning at; it was the green glitter that Isabelle had insisted on using as Clary's eye shadow. Magnus liked glitter, he had even forced some on Alec occasionally, but as Alec the Shadowhunter pointed out, it is difficult to intimidate demons while sporting sparkly pink spikes for hair.

Noticing Magnus staring at his girlfriend Jace grabbed Clary's arm pulling her away and into the lift, apparently forgetting that Magnus was gay and dating Alec, and as such was probably not at all interested in the length of Clary's skirt. Clary had to smother a laugh as she saw Magnus wink at her out of the corner of her eye. Typical Magnus, he was trying to see how far he could go before Jace snapped, not much further was Clary's impression as Jace growled also noticing Magnus' wink. Jace was going to have some problems when Clary started helping Isabelle catch demons, it wouldn't be fair to let the tall Shadowhunter do all the work, Clary would have to be bait sometimes too, and in the demon hunting world, bait meant flirting with things you would rather never go within 50 feet of.

After waiting ages for a cab to take them the 5 blocks to Taki's they sat crushed in the back seat for the 4 minutes it took to arrive at the diner. Jace climbed out first turning to help Clary out as the rest of the car filed past him, as move that received looks of bitter envy from Kaelie. Gripping Jace's elbow Clary was lead into a booth at the back. Clary cursed the dress once more as she very carefully sat down, making sure that her skirt didn't rise up as she sat down, she shot a venomous look as Isabelle, which the tall girl ignored. They ordered the same as they had the first time they had been here as a group nearly 3 years ago. They chatted idly and laughed over bad jokes and past event as they ate. When they left they all walked along to Pandemonium to enjoy the rest of their evening.

The club was a common place to find demons and as such was a popular hunting ground for Nephilim to hunt. Clary saw a few of the faces of the people she had befriended whilst training in Idris. Scanning the crowd, she also noticed the jet-black hair and purple eyes of a demon. Tapping Jace on the shoulder, she strode confidently toward a lesser demon of Pain; one thing that had changed about her was her confidence, as a Shadowhunter she had to at least appear full of life and unafraid or they wouldn't fallow you into your trap. She found this much easier now that she was home and hunting with the Lightwoods, she trusted her friends in a way she could not trust any of her tutors, she knew that no matter what happened their trap would be set up and they would all protect each other to the best of their ability.

After a few moments of dancing she walked away swishing her hips in the short skirt and flashed a parting look at the demon. It was following her, as she knew that it would, its purple eyes flashing in anticipation and its gaze fixed on her retreating back. Clay smile in triumph as she pushed open the door to a stock room with a no entry sign, this was always where the others waited and she could see them pressed to the back wall as the demon flashed her a smile that was filled with sharp glistening teeth. Clary winked back as it followed her into the small space.

**(A/N: You know the drill by now. Oh, and ****Serenity Shadowstar**** here is the promised warning, you know what I'm referring to. )**


	4. First Time

**Disclaimer: If you don't know that I don't own these characters by now, there is no hope for you.**

**A/N: Sorry it took so long to update but I've had some exams and other things to worry about so this sort of got pushed to the bottom of my list of priorities. I hope that you think that this chapter is worth the wait.**

**First Time**

The second the door was shut the Shadowhunters attacked; pulling angel blades from every imaginable place, they launched themselves at the creature. The creature swore in some harsh language that was not any human dialect and turned to defend itself. Clary noticed that its nails had grown long and black and its teeth were now dripping and electric blue. She did not need Alec's urgent warning to know that she did not want those fangs coming into contact with her skin.

As the creature faced the onslaught, Clary noticed an unprotected area. She slipped into a gap tiny between two crates of beer. Praying this would work, because she was now trapped, she rammed her blade into the demon's back. Roaring with agony it flashed around to face its attacker, Clary heard material rip as claws snagged on her dress. Clary panicked, she would have been yelled at for getting herself into a situation like this in training, but here it looked as if it would cost her more than a few extra evenings' combat simulations. Calming herself Clary looked the lesser demon of pain in the eye and smiled gently, she would not die dishonourably.

Jace had different plans, he had seen that Clary was trapped and there was no way he was going to let her get hurt because of a stupid mistake like that. He grabbed the silver rope that he had offered to test for Clary and flung it at the demon. The rope had runes for accuracy and binding, the idea being that you could tie anything up with it and it would never get out until you let it out. It worked better than even Jace had expected, the second it touched the demons waxy skin it stuck and the loops tightened until the demon could no longer stand. It fell to the floor with a heavy thump.

Clay sat down on one of the crates next to her looking a little tired. Jace parked himself on the opposite box and grinned cockily at her, "If I had known that you couldn't even handle one little demon of pain I would have made Isabelle go" He teased. Clary scowled and stuck her tongue out. It was at this point that the demon that was currently being forced to one of the racks let out a loud howl and attempted to break free. Alec swore and ducked as the creature attempted to bite his neck. Jace, laughing at his parabatai's difficulties, moved to help tie the demon to the racking with another rope.

Once they knew the demon couldn't escape they all bent over to catch their breath, in the end it had taken both the boys, to hold the demon still, and the girls, working form opposite sides, to tie the struggling beast to the pole. If possible they always tried to capture and question demons now before killing them, the Clave had demanded it after they found that demons had been telling Shadowhunters that Valentine was back for years before he made an appearance. Clary supposed that this was reasonable but it did make their jobs much harder.

Jace was obviously thinking along these lines too because he asked in a very bored voice "Who are you working for?" Clary had to try not to laugh as the demon pulled at the ropes and spat in response. A flicker of amusement flashed across Jace's face, Clary became concerned as he drew a blade from his pocket. Jace tilted the blade as he said in a wicked voice "I don't mean to sound clichéd but we can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way." The creature answered in a voice that had a reptilian quality to it "And what ways would they be little boy, I am a demon of pain, I thrive on it, I do not fear it!" The humour briefly returned to Jace's eyes and he replied "I know that, if you answer our questions I will give you what you desire, if you don't I will make you realise why normal people fear what you crave. Do we have an understanding?" Clary saw the demon bare its teeth then it answered in the same skin crawling voice, "I work for no one- no one sent me."

Jace reeled of the remainder of the Clave issued list of questions before finally stabbing the demon. After it had returned to its home dimension, they removed the ropes. "It appears that even though you can't seem to capture the demon you can certainly keep it still afterwards. Do you recon you can make these ropes tie themselves to poles though? Alec seemed to be having quite a bit of trouble there." Alec's only response to this was to shove Jace as he passed on his way to look for Magnus. Jace grinned at Clary; they both knew that Alec was Jace's favourite target because he was the one who would _always_ respond.

Now that the adrenaline was beginning to leave her system Clary realised that one of her legs was burning and shaking in such a way that if she didn't sit down soon she was going to fall. Taking a seat on the same create she had been resting on earlier she pulled up the hem of her dress. Sure enough, there was an angry red scratch under the place where her dress had torn. Jace moved over to her and looking at her with genuine concern. Quickly tracing an itraz on her thigh, she bounced up. "Did it get you?" Jace asked his girlfriend. "It was just a scratch" she smiled, moving to re-enter the club. She did not see how the concerned expression persisted on Jace's face and over the sound of the music that deafened them as she opened the door she did not see him pull out his phone to text the only person in Brooklyn who could, or would help her. Clary did not know that although she had healed the gash, the poison that was in the cut could have entered her bloodstream. Jace intended to get Magnus to search her for poison the second he could get her to him.

**(A/N: Thanks to all you guys who have reviewed, keep 'em coming) **


End file.
